The cackling sun melts the sky.
The exhausted earth heaves, unwilling, out of breath.
And the people under parasols crawl from shadow to furious shadow, asking why,
as the conflagration of a midsummer's day offers sweltering death.
The cats twitch in dream as passersby
peer longingly at the windowsills where they ignore the street.
A lone man smears salty rivers of sweat into his eyes,
thirsting for conditioned interlude from this murderous heat.
"A cloud, a cloud, oh thank you, a cloud",
weary walkers, prostrating themselves to cumulus change,
stare into the glare and declare to their friends out loud,
newly prepared for hopefully impending rain.